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PSA: Don't blame everything on your jungler

Electro522·Oct 27, 2016·3 votes·484 views

I know this has been said so many times before, but I just came from a game where I really got to witness it first hand.

I went mid, our jungle was a , and our top lane was a , and for some reason, unbeknownst to me, this Renek REALLY hates Nunu, kind of like how the community in general hates Yasuo.

Anyway, I have an abysmal performance (they counter-picked into me.....yeah, I didn't get to play League that game), and our Nunu does just fine. Their jungler (a ) camped bot...HARD. He hardly went to any other lane, and, unsurprisingly, their got fed off of it. Nunu tries his best to stifle the constant pressure Xin is putting up, but since Syndra is completely wrecking me in the mid lane, the pressure he puts up in the bot lane is countered by Syndra roaming. Needless to say, we lost.

And yet, despite all of this, our Renek decides to blame everything on the Nunu. Blame him for not ganking, not counter-jungling, etc. Not once, not ONCE, did this Renek EVER say anything as to how I performed. I went 1/7/5, and had the lowest gold in the game (yes, even less than our support). Our Nunu went 4/5/4, and was even in gold WITH RENEK. Even in the end game screen, while I'm trying to defend the Nunu, saying he did just fine, and that he should be blaming ME for the game, Renek STILL went on and on and on about how bad the Nunu was, as if he couldn't even read what I was typing.

(sigh) Don't blame everything on your jungler every game, people, for you may not have a clue as to what they tried to do all game in order to help the team win.

5 Comments

jaymc1130Oct 27, 20162 votes

This entire season has been pretty much defined by just how little impact the 4 lane roles have on the results of a game and just how much impact and influence a jungler has on it given a lot of the changes from the preseason that promote snowballing (the high damage keystones, tower durability decreases, minion wave spawns and strengths, bounty changes, 1st turret extra gold, RNG dragons that no longer provide income, the extreme nerfs to vision tools and the removal of most of them) that the truth of the matter is this more so than it ever was (and it was always true) before: The best jungle is going to win the game.

I didn't see this game in question. I can't state anything specific about it. But quite simply, your jungler goofed pretty hard. First he picked a shit tier jungler who is unlikely to ever have any impact on the game in the first place, then he ignored a lane that was countered pretty hard and let it become completely useless (your lane) then he allowed the opposing jungler to dictate the pace of the game and snowball the opposing team to victory without ever contesting it or countering the move with his own strategy.

Renek may have played like garbage. You might have as well. So might the bot lane. But one thing I am 100% sure of just from this description is that the jungler in that match played absolutely terrible and has zero game sense or map awareness.

This from a diamond jungler who is aware the responsibility for a game 9 times out of 10 falls on him as the jungler, and fully accepts that responsibility. Sorry mate, but thats the reality of things, jungler performance makes or breaks the game in yolo q right now. Been that way all season. And it was still like this in prior seasons, just not as overwhelmingly so or to the same degree.

Electro522Oct 27, 20162 votes

{quoted}

This from a diamond jungler who is aware the responsibility for a game 9 times out of 10 falls on him as the jungler, and fully accepts that responsibility. Sorry mate, but thats the reality of things, jungler performance makes or breaks the game in yolo q right now. Been that way all season. And it was still like this in prior seasons, just not as overwhelmingly so or to the same degree.

Even all the way down in Bronze? I understand what you're saying, and its one of the main reasons I stay away from jungling. My pathing is absolute garbage. But I've seen some pretty damn good junglers down here (not Diamond level, obviously), and still struggle to lead their team. But, then again, I am an awful jungler.

jaymc1130Oct 27, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=Paleo Electro,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=hBETamrG,comment-id=00000000,timestamp=2016-10-27T07:06:34.899+0000)

Even all the way down in Bronze? I understand what you're saying, and its one of the main reasons I stay away from jungling. My pathing is absolute garbage. But I've seen some pretty damn good junglers down here (not Diamond level, obviously), and still struggle to lead their team. But, then again, I am an awful jungler.

Yeah, its particularly true the lower on the ladder you go. Even if the effect is more noticeable higher on the ladder when not every player on both teams is playing like a chimpanzee with his tail on fire. Its actually a lot more damaging in higher levels too when you have a poor jungler, the game is basically zero chance for success.

At least in low elo you can count on players to continuously make mistakes no matter how big the lead may be and if you scrap hard enough, fight long enough, stall long enough, you can sometimes pull out an unexpected come from behind victory even when 3 of your teammates are non factors (or worse, out right negative factors you would have been better off having had them afk).

If you get a poor jungler (and make no mistake about it, this is by FAR the most difficult role in the game. Not because its hard mechanically, its not. Its hard because its the most crucial role strategically, so in a cerebral sense you have got to be on point, anticipating, calculating, communicating, always in position to counter the entire opposing team's every move every where, every time. So even in diamond good junglers are VERY far and few between) in diamond and up you might as well just afk in the fountain and wait on the FF vote. You usually know 5 minutes in if your jungler is competent or not. Has he spent the first 5 minutes doing nothing but clearing camps? Yep, gg, thats a loss. That guy is incomptent. And truth is that this is the most consistent mistake poor junglers make. They have no impact on the game in the first 10 minutes (or more often a negative impact by making the game basically 4v5 for 10-15 minutes) and then want to bitch and whine and moan about how bad the lanes are when the person who turned the game into a 4v5 was them in the first place.

Junglers who aren't proactive tend to let the lanes fall behind. You're the swing man, time to start using that to your advantage and create some momentum some where some how.

addyblindeyeOct 27, 20162 votes

Thank you for saying this tbh. While junglers do have a huge impact in this meta, it's important to realize that they aren't the only ones who control the game. Most of the complaining seems to come from losing top laners tbh. Im not at all saying that junglers aren't ever the cause of a loss. . . But more often than not the cause of a lane feeding isn't simply because the junglers didn't practically duo lane with them.

jaymc1130Oct 27, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Thank you for saying this tbh. While junglers do have a huge impact in this meta, it's important to realize that they aren't the only ones who control the game. Most of the complaining seems to come from losing top laners tbh. Im not at all saying that junglers aren't ever the cause of a loss. . . But more often than not the cause of a lane feeding isn't simply because the junglers didn't practically duo lane with them.

Its dependent on the lane matchup and the skill of the players to a degree.

But its also important to remember that as a jungler you have to be AWARE of what the lane matchups are. If you have a Darius versus a Fizz top lane, that fizz is GOING to need help. And hes GOING to need it EARLY. Myself, personally, knowing that matchup is such a disadvantage for my Fizz, I'll be there at 3:30 at the absolute latest with double buffs to secure first blood or at least force the Darius to back. I KNOW that the fizz can't stay alive in that matchup for longer than 4 minutes without dying, or conceding 10-20 cs to the Darius. So I prioritize that lane as my first stop.

It's little things like this that make jungling so difficult and its why so many people fail so badly at the role. Jungle is the ONLY role in which you have to know EVERY matchup in the game and how those matchups go. If you main mid lane, all you are really worried about is mid lane matchups. But as a jg you have to know how every one on your team fares in their matchup typically. And that's only one element of game knowledge that is required for jungling, saying nothing about game knowledge like knowing when to take dragon, when to counter jungle, when to invade, when, where, and how to ward to control objectives, how to properly path in the jungle, the proper way to kite and clear camps, how to pick teamfights, where to pick teamfights, why to pick teamfights, how to organize your team to be READY for a team fight, all this kind of stuff is also crucial. Jungling requires the maximum amount of mental effort to be successful and for the most part League players don't attempt to play League of Legends like a strategy game, they play it like a first person shooter.

So yeah, your laners have to hold up their end of the bargain. Sure. But their end of the bargain is no where near the workload of your jungler's end of the bargain. Thats just kind of the way the game works, its natural and organic. The jungler shoulders the biggest burden and that's just the way it is.

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